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Plastics are poisoning us

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Re: Plastics are poisoning us

#141

Post by nnf »

bzzzt wrote: post #134
nnf wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have similarly low electric bills for much of the year by way of solar panels and Powerwalls. The solar power is enough to power the whole house (with all electric HVAC & appliances, and no natural gas), charge the batteries, charge the car, and export the excess to the grid. Most nights the batteries supply enough power to make it through the night, even with the A/C or heat running intermittently. Only when the b…

So your 'easy step' is to live in a place where this is possible? Is the entire world welcome to live next to you?

I’m not the GP, I was just pitching in to answer the question about how electric bills can be that low.

Re: Plastics are poisoning us

#142

Post by falloutx »

c00lio wrote: post #106
myshpa wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good points. Minimalists saving the planet should add one more: 10. Eat plants. Avoiding meat and dairy is ‘single biggest way’ to reduce your impact on Earth https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/may/31/avoiding... If the world adopted a plant-based diet we would reduce global agricultural land use from 4 to 1 billion hectares (and free an area as big as Africa for wildlife/reforesting) https://ourworldindata…

11. No pets. Your pet is more harmful to the environment than your car. 12. Less or no children. All of the above, combined.

Didn't know I was inadvertently saving the environment. This shouldn't continue. Will buy a pet today while not biking back from work.

Re: Plastics are poisoning us

#143

Post by Retric »

hospitalJail wrote: post #133

The word 'Plastic' needs to die. Instead we should be more specific on the type of plastic. Teflon, PLA, ABS, resins, foams, etc... are all plastics, but they are so unrelated outside their long chains, its terrible to stereotype them all into one category. You aren't going to get cancer from PLA or Teflon, but rather the manufacturing process. You can eat these plastics as far as I know and you'd be fine. Eat someth…

Teflon Aka Polytetrafluoroethylene cookware represents a health hazard. The stuff contains a great deal of Florine and breaks down at 300C, but that’s not purely binary instead it becomes increasingly unstable as your approach the temperature. Further no manufacturing process is perfect, I wouldn’t therefore assume eating significant quantities would be safe.

That said, it’s generally used as a coating rather than a structural element so there’s less of it in the environment.

PS: Toothpaste which you should mostly spit out generally contains less than 0.5% fluoride compounds such as sodium fluoride NaF or tin fluoride SnF2, the F in both being Florine.

Re: Plastics are poisoning us

#145

Post by nukeman »

tfourb wrote: post #5
tmikaeld wrote: post #2

Yes? At this point, it's hopeless - plastics are expanding like never before, Shell expanding several new enormous factories right in the US. No politician is interested in stopping it either, since the lobbying industry for plastics is also going strong. The only legislation passed in modern time is against single-use plastics, which is just a tiny drop in the ocean (!!) of plastic. And also, the clothes industry is…

Not sure how the "it's to late to do anything about it" is supposed to contribute to this debate. It's also factually wrong. The production of new plastics could be drastically reduced through regulation of both the production itself and its use cases. Most food and drink containers could be made from non-plastic materials. I've built a house that uses maybe 5% of the plastic that is common in construction where I li…

I’m curious to hear about what you did with the house (I’m thinking about building/renovating a house in a few years). Did you go DIY or hire a contractor? What were some of your replacements for plastics?

Re: Plastics are poisoning us

#146

Post by LinuxBender »

pvaldes wrote: post #79
realshadow wrote: post #11

I became a minimist to save the planet as much as i could. Its easier than any one could think you know. Here is what i have been doing for a decade and would receommend 1. Reusing plastic bags (i love cotton bags but not ideal). Fold and keep one or two in your pocket before you leave home 2. Support and use light software so you dont need to upgrade your gadgets (12y laptop i use) 3. Prepare and eat home cooked mea…

8 -> copper is toxic. People with some genetic traits will suffer cirrhosis and shouldn't use it for water storage. Cooking on copper pots specially should be avoided. Iron and Aluminum are safer.

It's also a required element so I guess a question might be how many micrograms of copper are consumed per day by using a copper lined bottle. Adults should get 900 micrograms daily unless they are also consuming a lot of zinc and then one must do more math. Gastric bypass surgery is thought to be a risk factor for copper deficiency. Usage of proton pump inhibitors may also contribute to copper deficiency by reducing the ability of the body to absorb dietary copper.

Most homes have copper water pipes. That's probably more important to test as corrosion in water bottles should be easy to spot. There are test kits one can buy to test their water at home.

Re: Plastics are poisoning us

#147

Post by MagicMoonlight »

hospitalJail wrote: post #133

The word 'Plastic' needs to die. Instead we should be more specific on the type of plastic. Teflon, PLA, ABS, resins, foams, etc... are all plastics, but they are so unrelated outside their long chains, its terrible to stereotype them all into one category. You aren't going to get cancer from PLA or Teflon, but rather the manufacturing process. You can eat these plastics as far as I know and you'd be fine. Eat someth…

How do you know PLA is safe? I'm sure you would have thought lead was safe at the time

Re: Plastics are poisoning us

#148

Post by MagicMoonlight »

pvaldes wrote: post #79
realshadow wrote: post #11

I became a minimist to save the planet as much as i could. Its easier than any one could think you know. Here is what i have been doing for a decade and would receommend 1. Reusing plastic bags (i love cotton bags but not ideal). Fold and keep one or two in your pocket before you leave home 2. Support and use light software so you dont need to upgrade your gadgets (12y laptop i use) 3. Prepare and eat home cooked mea…

8 -> copper is toxic. People with some genetic traits will suffer cirrhosis and shouldn't use it for water storage. Cooking on copper pots specially should be avoided. Iron and Aluminum are safer.

Or just use glass... completely non reactive, fully recyclable. The perfect container.

Re: Plastics are poisoning us

#149

Post by robotomir »

pvaldes wrote: post #105
smellyshaft1 wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aluminum is not safer than copper

I assume that the list from less toxic to more toxic is: silica -> iron -> aluminum -> copper With a logarithmic scale unit between each step or so. We ingest and tolerate much more aluminum than copper in our daily journey and we could drink water with much more iron oxide dissolved on it than aluminum oxide without suffering permanent problems

Where's titanium on that scale?

Re: Plastics are poisoning us

#150

Post by acumenical »

kashunstva wrote: post #86
pvaldes wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

8 -> copper is toxic. People with some genetic traits will suffer cirrhosis and shouldn't use it for water storage. Cooking on copper pots specially should be avoided. Iron and Aluminum are safer.

> suffer cirrhosis …and neuropsychiatric symptoms. Wilson’s disease is surprisingly common at 1 in 30,000.

> surprisingly common at 1 in 30,000

You should reevaluate what you consider common. Schizophrenia, a condition you probably rarely witness in every day life, is around 1 in 100. You don't interact with 30,000 people even over the course of a year.

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